Use PowerShell to run the DeploymentPro module

You can run the BitTitan DeploymentPro module for a few users at a time in MSPComplete. However, it is more efficient to use PowerShell to run the DeploymentPro module if you must do it for 100 or more users. This method is also recommended if the destination domain varies for different users, because you can define various destination domains using a comma-separated value (CSV) file. This article guides you through the steps to use PowerShell to run the DeploymentPro module.

Create a “Scripts” folder in the root of C:\ (example: C:\Scripts) and extract the contents of the Start-DeploymentProUserBatch.zip file to it.

Create a CSV file of users for DeploymentPro

Before you can use PowerShell to run the DeploymentPro module, you must create a CSV file that lists the users who will need their Outlook email profiles configured by DeploymentPro.

Complete these steps to create a CSV file of users for DeploymentPro:

Open the csv file that you extracted to the C:\Scripts\ directory.

Add this information under each column header for every user who will need their Outlook email profiles configured by DeploymentPro:

PrimaryEmailAddress: Enter the users’ primary email addresses that are displayed in the DeploymentPro page in MSPComplete, as shown in the screenshot below.

DestinationEmailAddress: Enter the users’ UserPrincipalName (UPN) for the destination mailbox. This is the email address users will enter when they sign in to their destination mailboxes. You can define different destination domains in the CSV file.

A completed CSV file should look like the example below.

Save and close the CSV file.

Run the Start-DeploymentProUserBatch PowerShell script

We recommend that you run the Start-DeploymentProUserBatch PowerShell script to run the DeploymentPro module as soon as possible, even if the email cutover (MX record cutover) won't happen for some time. When you run the DeploymentPro module, you define the date and time in which the DeploymentPro wizard will run on user computers. DMA immediately downloads the DeploymentPro module to user computers, even if the wizard isn’t scheduled to run for some time. Run the DeploymentPro module right away to give yourself enough time to troubleshoot connectivity issues that could occur when DMA tries to download the DeploymentPro module to user computers. Read the Troubleshoot DeploymentPro article for more information.

Complete these steps to run the Start-DeploymentProUserBatch PowerShell script and run the DeploymentPro module:

Search for Windows PowerShell in the Windows Start menu.

Right-click Windows PowerShell in the search results, and select Run as administrator.

Click Yes at the prompt to confirm that you want to allow the app to make changes to your device.

To confirm that the PowerShell execution policy is set to Unrestricted or RemoteSigned, type this command and press Enter:

Get-ExecutionPolicy

To set the execution policy to Unrestricted if it is currently not set to Unrestricted or RemoteSigned, type this command and press Enter:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

Note: Do not change the execution policy to RemoteSigned if it is already set to Unrestricted.

To set the PowerShell location to the C:\Scripts directory where the required files are stored, type this command and press Enter:

Set-Location C:\Scripts

To run the Start-DeploymentProUserBatch PowerShell script, type this command and press Enter:

.\Start-DeploymentProUserBatch.PS1

Type R and press Enter to confirm that you want to run the PowerShell script.

The PowerShell script requests the sample.csv file that you configured earlier. Locate the CSV file (C:\Scripts) and double-click it.

Type Y and press Enter to specify a date and time to run the DeploymentPro module for users.

Type a date and time for the DeploymentPro wizard to run on user computers. This date and time should happen soon after the email cutover (MX record cutover) date and time. Use the format listed below:

YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM

Example: 2020-04-01 10:00

Note: If you have not identified the email cutover date, then enter a date far in the future (i.e., a few months later than the expected cutover date). When you do this, you should also set a reminder for yourself to rerun the PowerShell script to reschedule the date and time for the DeploymentPro wizard once you have identified the exact date and time for the email cutover. Scheduling is done by the local computer time of the computer being scheduled.

Type Y to confirm the date and time.

Enter your BitTitan username and password and click OK.

Enter the customer ID from MSPComplete and press Enter. The customer ID can be found in the URL when viewing customer information in MSPComplete as highlighted below.

The script confirms the user email addresses that were successfully scheduled for DeploymentPro. DMA downloads the DeploymentPro module to user computers at the next heartbeat interval, which could take up to an hour.

Next steps

Perform the mailbox migration.

For more information: Follow the steps in the migration guide for your customer’s source and destination.

On the email cutover date and time, the DeploymentPro wizard will guide the customer’s users through the configuration of their Outlook email profiles. As users complete the DeploymentPro wizard, their email addresses will progress to the “Completed” phase in the DeploymentPro page.

The time input behaves just like the GUI when configuring DeploymentPro using PowerShell. Unless you explicitly assign the time zone like ‘1994-11-05T08:15:30Z’ or ‘1994-11-05T08:15:30-05:00’ in the console, DeploymentPro will treat the input as local time zone and convert into UTC thereby.

PrimaryEmailAddress: Enter the users’ primary email addresses that are displayed in the Users page in MSPComplete, as shown in the screenshot below. it's not DeploymentPro since the primary email address that is being displayed on DeploymentPro might not be as accurate since it depends on the how the computer profile being configured.

Just looking for additional clarification regarding the scheduled time: - "Scheduling is done by the local computer time of the computer being scheduled." - Does this mean that if mm-dd-yyy 08:00 is entered in the powershell, that deployment pro will alert the user at 8am their time? or will it convert based on the time zone difference and alert them at 8am of the administrators time?

When you schedule the cutover, the time you enter would be based on the admins machine you are scheduling for. As an example, your admin is on the West coast, while the users are located on the East coast. If the admin schedules the cutover for 9AM on the West coast, the East coast users will have their cutovers start at 12PM their time.